Method of repairing cracks in patent-leather.



I dinary while an abradant of WILLIAM WINSLOW CROOKER, OF EVERETT, MASSACHUSETTS, LITTLE, OF WEST NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

ASSIGNOR TO HENRY C.

METHOD OF REPAIRING CRACKS IN PATENT-LEATHER.

1 04,537. No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, WVILLIAM \Vmstow CROOKER, of Everett, in the county of Mid dlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvemerits in Methods of- Repairing Cracks in lat'ent-Leather, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the operation of repairing cracks which form in patent leather parts of boot and shoe uppers after the upper has been lasted.

It Is Well known that the enamel of orpatent leather often cracks after the u per of which it forms a art has been laste and given its final "orm. These cracks may be due to the rhrinkage of the enamel, or to the stretching of the leather by the lasting process, or to both causes. They are sometimes accompanied by cracks in the grain surface of the leather, and my invention has for its object to enable the portion of the crack that is formed in the rain surface to be filled, and its edges renered smooth, preparatory to the application of a second coat of enamel for the purpose of re airing the damage caused by cracking, t e practice being to remove the enamel containin the crack and portions of: the enamel at bot sides of the crack, thereby denuding a strip of the grain surface of the leather, and then to apply a second coatingvto the denuded portion to restore the continuity of the enamel.

In carrying out my invention 1 denude the dama ed portion of a patent leather part of a laste boot or shoe upper, preferably by first rendering brittle the portion to be denuded, bympplying a volatile solvent such as acetone thereto, and then rubbing off the brittleized enamel, by pressing it against the rapidly rotating cloth cover of a wheel having a yielding cushion or pad supporting the cloth cover. This operation removes the enamel down to the grain surface of the leather, without abrading said surface, because the yieldingly backed cloth cover, the brittleized enamel,

speufication of Letters Patent. 7 Application filed October 12, 1910. Serial No. 586,703.

Patented Sept 26, 1911.

is not an abradant of the grain surface of the leather. Then in case the denuded grain surface is cracked in continuation of a crack in the enamel coating, 1 press the cracked part of said surface against the cloth cover of a rapidly rotating wheel, said cover being backed by a yielding pad or cushion and saturated with a composition or paste,ivhich is at once a gentle or slowly acting abradant of the edges of the crack in the grain surface, and a filler for said crack. Said paste is preferably composed of oleuginous matter such as tallow, lard, or a heavy viscous oil, a resin or gum, such as shellac, or pitch, which is soluble in the olcaginous matter, and a finely powdered abrasive material such as carborundum. These ingredients are proportioned to form a soft paste adapted to be spread on the cloth cover and to penetrate the same. A brief application of the cracked leather to the cloth cover thus treated, causes the cover and the paste carried thereby, to remove the raw projecting edges of the crack, thus leaving the cracked grain surface entirely smooth, a ortion of the paste being at the same time forced into the crack completely filling the same flush with the grain sur ace of the leather and practically restoring the continuity of the grain surface, and preparing it for the second coating of enamel.

I claim:

The method of re airing deeply cracked patent leather, whici conslsts in removing the cracked portion of the enamel thereby deuuding the cracked portion of the grain surface, and then removing the raw edges of the grain surface at the sides of the crack by applying a moving yielding surface carrying an abrasive filler to the said denuded and cracked portion, whereby the crack. is tilled tlush with the grain surface of the leather.

In testimony whereof I have attired my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

. WllililAM WINSLOW CROOKER.

Witnesses 

